Loudon Wainwright III

Loudon Snowden Wainwright III (born September 5, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter and occasional actor. He has released twenty-six studio albums, four live albums, and six compilations. Some of his best-known songs include "The Swimming Song", "Motel Blues", "The Man Who Couldn't Cry", "Dead Skunk", and "Lullaby". In 2007, he collaborated with musician Joe Henry to create the soundtrack for Judd Apatow's film Knocked Up. In addition to music, he has acted in small roles in at least eighteen television programs and feature films, including three episodes in the third season of the series M*A*S*H.

Reflecting upon his career in 1999, he stated, "You could characterize the catalog as somewhat checkered, although I prefer to think of it as a tapestry." He is the brother of singer Sloan Wainwright and has four children, including musicians Rufus Wainwright, Martha Wainwright, and Lucy Wainwright Roche. He has been married and divorced twice, including to folk singer Kate McGarrigle.

Wainwright was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the son of Martha Taylor, a yoga teacher, and Loudon Wainwright Jr., a columnist and editor for Life magazine. His great-great-grandfather was the politician and diplomat A. Loudon Snowden. He is a descendant of Peter Stuyvesant, the director-general of New Netherland.

Wainwright's father was not a professional musician, but he played the piano and wrote some songs, exposing his children to musicians such as Tom Lehrer and Stan Freberg, whom Wainwright later cited as influences. Wainwright grew up in Bedford, New York, in Westchester County. Among his sisters is Sloan Wainwright, also a singer. Like his father, he attended St. Andrew's School near Middletown, Delaware.

Wainwright began writing songs in 1968, while living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His first song, "Edgar", was about a lobster fisherman he had met while working in a boatyard on Rhode Island. He had previously studied acting at Carnegie Mellon University, before leaving to participate in the Summer of Love in San Francisco. After writing his first songs, he performed in small rooms and folk clubs in Cambridge, Boston, and New York City. He was soon noticed and obtained a recording contract. Wainwright signed with Atlantic Records in 1969, and the label released his self-titled debut album in 1970.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.